Week of August 8, 1985
A terrorist car bomb explodes at the U.S. Air Force’s Rhein-Main Air base as
servicemen arrived for work, killing an American airman and his wife and injuring
17 others.
Arthur J. Walker is convicted on seven counts of helping his brother pass military
secrets to the Soviet Union.
In Japan - a packed JAL jetliner carrying
524 people on a domestic flight slams
into a mountain and explodes in flames,
shortly after the pilot reported that a door
seal had burst, suddenly depressurizing
the cabin.
Vietnam presents crates containing
remains of 26 soldiers killed during the
Vietnam War to U.S. officials.
Police have found the black boxes of the JAL airliner that crashed killing 520
people. Japan Air Lines said the jumbo jet that crashed rolled “all over the sky”
after sections of its tail were ripped away. Four passengers survived. All were
seated in row 54.
Johannesburg - Police report that a firebomb damaged the home of Winnie
Mandela, wife of black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela. She was not hurt.
Violence flares near Johannesburg as riot patrols fatally shot a 12-year-old black
girl and police whipped black and white students urging a consumer boycott.
Sports - The USFL confirms that quarterback
Steve
Young
is the highest paid player in the game at $2.4
million.
Coca-Cola gulped first, declared victory over Pepsi in
the great space race. NASA says Coke was the first to
be enjoyed in space until astronauts popped a Pepsi
can. The astronauts completed an evaluation form on
how the soft drink containers worked in space. Coke had
a screw-top container while Pepsi went with a pop-top
lid.
Week of August 8, 1985
Music news -
MTV influence - MTV celebrates its fourth year and there’s a new novel called
“Less Than Zero” riddled with MTV references. The first novel to do so. The
author, Bret Easton Ellis says he finds the spread of MTV “worrisome” though.
Also, besides ‘Miami Vice” - look for new prime time shows this season to have
an MTV influence.
Bruce Springsteen brings a temporary halt to a strike when he said he would not
cross a Cleveland picket line to play at a concert this week. A spokesman for the
union representing ushers and ticket sellers at Cleveland stadium said
management agreed to pay the workers an extra 41.50 per hour for the night
after Springsteen threatened to cancel his concert at the stadium.
Billy Crystal
being ripped off? - It’s the hot phrase -
“Darling, you look mahvelous” and it comes from
comedian Billy Crystal on “Saturday Night Live.” Look for
a new dance record written by him and Paul Schaffer
called,
“You Look Mahvelous,” which is now getting
played on some radio stations. The record had to be
rushed out because something called “You Look
Mahvelous,’ by John Cygan, imitates Crystal’s “Fernando”
inflection and routine on that record. Crystal doesn’t dig it.
“I don’t mind someone parodying my routine - in fact, there’s already an answer
record that’s getting paid in Miami called ‘You Look Terrible’ that’s done in the
voice of an old Jewish man, but this Cygan song is a complete rip-off. It’s
infuriating.”
Continues Crystal - “What really makes it sleazy and insulting is that before I
singed with A&M (records), I talked to Columbia, so they knew what I was doing.
Then they called me and said that they had a music track and asked me to listen
t it and do the vocals. I asked them to sent it over and I’d listen to it, but instead,
they just rushed out this rip-off version. It’s a terrible impression, a crummy music
track and they’ve had the nerve to call it, ‘You Look Mahvelous.’”
Television news -
Lorne Michaels
who created and originally produced
“Saturday Night Live” is returning as executive producer for its
11
th
season. He left the show back in 1980 to work in film and
other television projects. The program’s previous producer,
Dick Ebersol, resigned from SNL last spring.
